On April 25, 2025, Attorney General Letitia James, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, and Attorney General Keith Ellison co-led a coalition of attorneys general in filing a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts against the Trump administration over its unprecedented requirement for states to end diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in schools, putting billions in education funding at risk. On April 3, the Department of Education alerted state education agencies that, to continue receiving essential funding, they must sign a new certification affirming they will not engage in undefined “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Several states refused to sign the certification, but reiterated a commitment to following state and federal law, and explained  that there is no lawful or practical way to certify compliance given ED’s vague and unsupported interpretation of Title VI. The coalition asserted that the new directive is illegal and unconstitutional and sought a court order declaring the April 3 certification demand unlawful, stopping it from being implemented.

The U.S. Department of Education is unapologetically abandoning its mission to ensure equal access to education with its latest threat to wholesale terminate congressionally mandated federal education funding. Let me be clear: the federal Department of Education is not trying to ‘combat’ discrimination with this latest order. Instead it is using our nation’s foundational civil rights law as a pretext to coerce states into abandoning efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through lawful programs and policies. Once again, the President has exceeded his authority under the Constitution and violated the law. Attorney General Rob Bonta